Notes: Oh man, guys, this movie is incredible. It's on Netflix and I cannot recommend it and its adorableness highly enough.
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you will feel my smile
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Riding a bike feels like flying.
Impossible, Leo had said. Impossible that he could be doing what he's doing right now, riding a borrowed bicycle down the neighborhood streets, hurtling headlong into the unknown and not feeling scared at all.
But then, he'd said falling in love was impossible too. And look how that had turned out.
Gabriel's breath is warm behind his ear. "A little more to the left."
Leo shivers and carefully edges the handlebars sideways. Gabriel squeezes his arm to tell him he's gone far enough.
It's strange how quickly they've adapted to this, this silent unspoken language. Touches and nudges and arms offered. Gi and Leo have developed their own way of communicating the things he tends to miss because he can't see; subtle differences in facial expression are translated by Gi's wry tone, assholish gestures are passed along—though she doesn't mean to do it—when her fingernails bite into the skin of his arm. It comes with being best friends for so long, he knows. They understand each other in a way that's hard for others to see.
Leo is building his own Gabriel-specific dictionary, though. Learning to listen for his smiles, his held breath, his confusion. His embarrassment when he forgets that Leo can't see whatever cat video he's discovered this time. His determination when faced with a challenge, like learning Braille.
On the whole, though, Leo is finding that Gabriel's pretty easy to understand. He isn't someone who gets confused or hides. He's not the kind of person to let a lack of confidence stand in his way.
He's the kind of person to look Impossible right in the face and say, I thought you'd be taller.
Leo loves him for this. For making him want to be brave too.
When they're like this, wind rushing by and the sun warm on his skin, Gabriel's exhilarated laughter filling his ears, it feels very easy to be brave.
Leo closes his eyes. He pedals faster.